CURRENT NECESSITY OF PNEUMOCOCCAL (Streptococcus pneumoniae) VACCINE

Streptococcus pneumoniae causes an acute bacterial infection, this bacterium, also called as pneumococcus which is usually carried in the nasopharynx of healthy people, but occasionally leads to pneumococcal diseases, such as meningitis, pneumoniae, otitis, sinusitis and bacteremia. Annually, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the occurrence of one and a half million of deaths in children under five years by pneumococcal diseases, mainly in poor countries. Pneumoniae is a preventable and curable disease that sickens more than 155 million children under 5 and kills 1.6 million each year. In spite of the immense death toll of this disease especially Streptococcus pneumoniae, affordable medical treatment and prevention needed. There are number of vaccines available in the market but the old vaccine did not protect against certain strains of bacteria that have become more common in recent years. Recently, new vaccines introduced or approved in US, Europe, Africa and Asia including India, hope to save million children’s lives in a year. If more widely accessed and properly used, these existing interference could protect and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and newborns. To control this disease burden (Streptococcus pneumoniae) in all over the world, people will have already marked world pneumoniae day (12th November).